by: Marti Oakley  (C) copyright 2010  

The article claims Monsanto is a winner in the economy and goes on to say Monsanto has created many billions of dollars of “value” for the world “with seeds genetically engineered to ward off insects or make crops immune to herbicides:” Personally, I would rather deal with the weeds and insects than the toxic chemicals used to grow the crops which most countries have the good sense to reject.  All of this to grow seeds that cannot be controlled, that through wind drift, horizontal transfer, bird droppings and the movement of animals, which invade the land around it. 

The agrobacterium that escapes from the genetically modified organisms and deposits itself in the soil just waiting for the chance to attach itself to, and alter the structure of, some unsuspecting plant minding its own business, is kind of like Monsanto taking a big dump in the middle of your yard.  Agrobacterium is the dung of biotech.  It cannot be controlled, eradicated or eliminated totally.  It spreads like wildfire once outside the lab. 

Monsanto,  just as most all corporations who are tampering with mother nature, puts control and profits above all else.  There is nothing altruistic in what it does. 

The public is hard to please? 

I guess we are.  Maybe the thought of human dna being spliced into cows and pigs kind of gives us the heebie-geebies.  Transgene splicing has made “Swamp Thing” a reality.  Human dna is being spliced into plant and animal and, alike and vice versa.  I just can’t figure out what’s wrong with us.  Maybe we just thought that food produced naturally without all the chemicals, without all the transgenics, without all the horrendous side affects was maybe the better way to go.  But then, maybe we don’t gauge the success of our lives based on how many people we screwed to get where we are. 

Claiming there are vast (vast! I tell you!) farmers who “prefer” Monsanto seeds Forbes writers carefully side step the monopoly Monsanto has created in the seed business.  It isn’t that farmers prefer their seeds or the increasingly toxic and spendy chemicals needed to grow them, it is that Monsanto has consumed every small seed company it could and driven those who wouldn’t sell out to them, out of business.  The farmers have no choice: they have to buy Monsanto seed if they are going to grow crops.  Monsanto currently controls approximately 95% of the seed market.  That’s not choice….that’s a monopoly!  And our government not only facilitated this takeover but openly supported Monsanto’s efforts.

I have to wonder how much of Monsanto’s amazing billions in profits was gained by the activity of hiring goon squads and trespassing onto private property to take samples of someone else’s heritage or traditional crops to see if Monsanto’s Frankenseeds had jumped the fence line?  I guess it matters not much, after all, our own justice system ( a term which has become a true oxymoron) encourages the swat-team like raids performed by hired mercenaries who have routinely trespassed onto private land, threatened private land owners and committed theft……all for their corporate master…..Monsanto. 

Working to make a profit at the expense of humanity would be more like it.  Hybridization; the processing of breeding plants selected for their best natural traits is NOT the same thing as altering the genetic structure of a plant by attaching uncontrollable proteins, or splicing the dna of plants and animals, inserting genes from other species and creating some kind of scientific monstrosity.  If you‘ve created something that won’t grow unless you apply some toxic chemical concoction to it, what do you end up with other than a mess? 

Monsanto is not being targeted (as this article would suggest) for making a product that is too good.  Its just that DuPont and a few other big players want a piece of the pie.  Monsanto’s products are a detriment not only to the environment, but to humanity as well. 

The EU has just begun allowing imported foods containing gmo.  The problem for companies like Monsanto is that the EU requires labeling to state that it does contain gmo.  EU consumers know up front the product on the shelf is contaminated and make the choice whether to buy it or not.  Even though the US passed the same kind of labeling law in 2005, the FDA has never enforced it.  It might hurt Monsanto and other companies producing Frankenfoods-for- profits.

As it turns out, those gmo crops aren’t really all that productive and when gauged against the continually rising costs of planting and treating these little seeds of destruction, aren’t all that profitable either.  Ask the grain haulers along the Mississippi.  Load after load is rejected for foreign markets sending the hauler down the river to the one buyer who will take it: Ralston-Purina.  They make dog food for the most part. Oh! And some cereal. For US markets. 

And how ‘bout those pig patents filed in 162 countries?  Monsanto claiming because it identified a naturally occurring variable gene that causes accelerated growth they should now own the pig!  Oh…and lets us not forget the vivid descriptions in the applications for patent describing every means of reproduction (the usual methods we all know of) as now the “new and innovative” technology of Monsanto.  Their idea.  Patentable.  And all the little piglets too!